Intentions to Marry, 1899 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840416, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington (now located in the National Library reading room), September 5 2025

1899 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 766

District of WELLINGTON Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar FREDERICK WILLIAM MANSFIELD

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
428	20 October 1899	Ernest William Gieson Lilian Ida Leslie	Ernest William Jensen Lilian Ida Leslie 💍 1899/4223	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist & Druggist	28 22	Wellington Wellington	20 years 6 years	P. Andrews Church	99/529		20 October 1899	Rev. Rutherford Waddell
429	21 October 1899	Henry Frances Clark Jessie Macey	Henry Francis Clark Jessie Macey 💍 1899/5317	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Petone Wellington	12 years 16 years	Residence of Mr. Jno. T. Macey, 12 Somerset Avenue	99/5473	Ellen Barnes (Mother)	21 October 1899	Rev. E. Doddrell
430	23 October 1899	William Hunter Emily McKenzie	William Hunter Emily McKenzie 💍 1899/4811	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	32 32	Wellington Wellington	3 days 8 years	Residence of Mr. J. Stevenson, 23 Kent Terrace, Wellington	99/4526		23 October 1899	Rev. J. K. Elliott
431	24 October 1899	Joseph Moody Simpson Elizabeth Cole Bingham	Joseph Moody Simpson Elizabeth Cole Bingham 💍 1899/4812	Bachelor Spinster	Presbyterian Clergyman	35 33	Wellington Newry, Co. Down, Ireland	1 day 33 years	Kent Terrace Church, Wellington	99/4527		27 October 1899	Rev. J. K. Elliott
432	24 October 1899	Leonard Simmonds Elizabeth Bennett	Leonard Simmonds Elizabeth Bennett 💍 1899/4783	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter & Joiner	22 23	Wellington Wellington	22 years 3 years	Registrars Office	99/4497		24 October 1899	Registrar
433	24 October 1899	Joseph Swindell Williams Jane McKenzie	Joseph Swindell Williams Jane McKenzie 💍 1899/4833	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable	32 26	Wellington Wellington	3 1/2 years 6 months	Wesleyan Parsonage, Taranaki St.	99/4571		24 October 1899	Rev. W. C. Oliver
434	27 October 1899	Archibald Andrews Ethel Eva May Watters	Archibald Andrews Ethel Eva May Watters 💍 1899/4814	Bachelor Spinster	Lithographic Printer	24 23	Wellington Sydney N.S.W.	8 months 23 years	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church	99/4529		27 October 1899	Rev. J. K. Elliott
435	28 October 1899	James Frederick Young Mary Allan	James Frederick Young Mary Allan 💍 1899/4813	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	22 21	Wellington Upper Hutt	6 years 17 years	Presbyterian Church, Upper Hutt	99/4528		28 October 1899	Rev. J. K. Elliott

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).